BART poll finds more gripes about cleaning, value

BART

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 11, 2011

More people are riding BART, according to a pair of surveys released Thursday, but fewer of them are satisfied. Their biggest gripes are dirty seats, noisy rides and high fares.

BART's quarterly performance ratings and its 2010 customer satisfaction survey, presented to the Board of Directors, show that the rail system remains popular among passengers but that budget cuts and fare increases have diminished their satisfaction with the service.

Ridership figures collected through the end of the year show more people than expected are riding BART - about 344,000 a day compared with projections of 339,000, according to the performance report.

But the customer survey found that 82 percent of riders surveyed were satisfied overall - a strong mark but a decline of two percentage points from the last report in 2008. A much bigger slide came when passengers were asked if BART is a good value for their money. Just 64 percent rated BART a good value compared with 71 percent two years earlier.

While the survey staff blamed the recession for the decline, Bob Franklin, the board president, said fare increases have undoubtedly contributed.

"We have to keep our ticket prices down," he said. "We may be getting too expensive for some of our customers."

But BART's cleanliness - especially its often-soiled cushioned seats - took the biggest hit in the customer satisfaction survey. Satisfaction with the condition and cleanliness of the light-blue seats dropped by 5.6 percentage points, train floors by 4.1 points, stations by four points and train interiors by 3.7 points. Customers were also significantly less pleased with the noise level inside trains, with that rating dropping by 5.3 points.

The cleanliness complaints come as little surprise. Over the past two years, as BART struggled with declining revenues and budget problems, it cut scores of workers who clean cars and stations. BART has consistently failed to meet its own standards for cleanliness in its quarterly performance reviews.

BART spokesman Linton Johnson said the satisfaction survey was conducted before the board approved a deep-cleaning effort for trains last fall. He said the agency has also started a more aggressive schedule for replacing seat cushions.

Franklin said that now that ridership is rising, "maybe it's time to invest more resources in cleaning."

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